Photographer's Note

Ouro Preto is located about 400 km to the north-west of Rio de Janeiro, close to Belo Horizonte, main city of the Minais Gerais state. When visiting Ouro Preto, one can discover that everything reminds that the city used to be the wealthiest place in Bazil under the Portuguese government. Indeed, during the ccc century, this place grew incredibly thanks to the gold extraction. Today, this 60,000 inhabitants city is divided into two parts :
- the modern one with a rather good economic activity focused on gem and metal extraction and agriculture,
- the historic part which is strongly focused on the tourism activity.

The historic part is really wealthy with a huge concentration of Portuguese buildings and churches as artefacts of the rich past. Indeed, there are about 12 churches on the top of the main hills of that city, each of them with very wealthy decorations, including the XXX church erected by the black slaves. Indeed, slavery was part of the history of that city like many big cities in Brazil which grew up between the 16th and 19th century. One can remark that the first level of any building was dedicated to the housing of the slaves working in the “Minais Gerais” which were also means the “General Mines” after the Portuguese imperial institution in charge of developing the gem and metal extraction in Brazil.

It was very nice to discover Ouro Preto at sunrise since it’s located in the mountains quite far from the sea. Thus, each morning there were a nice fog around the hills and the building before the sunlight started to warm the city.

Nice shot showing the sun and these black shadows. Ouro Preto means black gold, so we do have these two colors here. I went twice to Brazil but hadn't enough time to visit Ouro Preto. I collect minerals and that area is well known for that. I wish I was there to take that picture.

I think I agree that you can live well without a figure here - it's stunning. There may be a little burn to the left but if it were close framed in a thin darker colour I think this effect would lessen - it's accentuated by bleeding into the frame a little. Very very nice!

Wonderful lighting - the golden glow is fabulous. I also like the way the buildings drop away from the viewer leading the eye into the frame. I might have possibly cropped just a little from the bottom to remove some of the darkness.

Steven, really nice photo! i like the golden colours and the definition. The prespective is very well choosen. I Agree with luko, maybe someone walking or a old car would give even more life to it. regards, Mario

Hi! You captured Ouro Preto exactly how it is... The mist in the background is always there, early in the morning, and sometimes all day... It is one of my favorite historic Brazilian towns. Great picture! Thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Patricia